Review of MirrorMask (2005) by Barb B — 25 Aug 2008

Well as expected, this film looked absolutely fantastic, a visual feast no less, with the imagery looking just like one of McKean's Sandman covers in motion. Alas, it was all fancy wallpaper slopped over a very thin weedy story, most surprising for Neil Gaiman.

I really wanted to love this film, hoping that it would have been the 'new' Labyrinth, especially with Jim Henson's Creature shop on board, but I have to confess about three quarters of the way through I became bored. After it had finished, I watched it again with the McKean and Gaiman commentary on, which I found a lot more interesting.

It would have worked wonderfully as a short, but even as a not-too-lengthy 101 mins it felt like Mckean had played around with Photoshop and then realised he'd better draft in his mate to work a story into it. A real shame, here's hoping he can make magic with his next film.